Free Range Film Festival bringing independent films to Wrenshall

Friday and Saturday in Wrenshall, hundreds of film fanatics are making their way to the Free Range Film Festival for a movie going experience like no other.

Located on the Food Farm, the festival boasts a range of movies all from local and international filmmakers. All the movies are shown in a 107-year-old barn.

The festival is hosted by Annie Dugan and her husband Janaki Fisher-Meritt and the barn was on their property when they bought it, they just wanted to make use of it.

“So we cleaned it up and we said, ‘Okay what are we going to do?’ and friends of ours are filmmakers and we said, ‘let’s do a film festival!”” says Annie.

You can find the address and more information on their website.

This year they will be showing the following films:

Friday Evening, June 23
Films begin at 7pm

in which they were not yet hermit crabs – directed by Walter Smits
The filmmaker described this short as “loneliness from the beach or ssssomething,” and a more accurate film synopsis has not been written.

The Forest of Souls – directed by Pierre Gaffié
Mathilde is a young acoustician who travels through time to find the souls of departed loved ones through sound.

I Stutter – directed by James Robinson
How do you navigate a world that demands we speak up and speak clearly? How can we listen?

The Realization of Childhood Dreams – directed by John Akre
Ordella Walker and Amy Stolee, schoolteachers from rural Minnesota, took a trip by train in 1933 and made a scrapbook. 

Cane Boil – directed by Abbey Hoekzema
In rural Statesboro, Georgia, a community comes together to dance and make sugar.

The Submergents: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Embrace The Cold – directed by Nicholas Kapanke
This film follows an eclectic group of folks who take daily dips in the Lake Harriet Magic Hole during the heart of the Covid pandemic.

Jonathan Thunder: Good Mythology – directed by Sergio Rapu
This portrait of Duluth artist Jonathan Thunder was recently featured on PBS North’s American Masters.

Alongside – directed by River Park
There is something lurking outside the window.

Whale Eyes – directed by James Robinson
A short documentary about seeing and being seen.  

JessZilla – directed by Emily Sheskin
A coming-of-age story about what it means to be a champion.

Saturday Evening, June 24
Films begin at 7pm

Yum – directed by Brian Barber
If you aren’t the eater, you are the eaten.

What the Wings Bring – directed by Deb Wallwork
Carol Kern’s homemade jellies always win the top blue ribbons at the East Ottertail County Fair

Cherry Poppins: Art is cool, so are you – directed by Henriette Soderlind
A profile of Duluth surrealist Emily Koch. (The phrase “Duluth surrealist” might be redundant.)

Finding Her Beat – directed by Dawn Mikkelson and Keri Pickett
In the midst of a frozen Minnesota winter, a Japanese drum master and Korean adoptee from North Dakota join forces to assemble the world’s best Taiko drummers.

Luce and the Rock – directed by Luce Grosjean
One day, out of nowhere, a giant Rock lays in the middle of the peaceful little village where Luce lives.

Solar Wind Alley – directed by Anastasia Lobkovski
Alice lives with her younger sisters in a rural Finnish village in the house their mother built before she passed away. A solar storm threatens the small community.